DCMU Episode 5: The Enemy Within Part II
by FireBuff51
Summary: DC/Marvel Unlimited: a shared universe where the characters of Marvel and DC have always coexisted. After exposure to black Kryptonite, Superman and Clark Kent have split into two separate beings, with SHIELD and some of Earth's Mightiest heroes caught in the middle!


**DCMU:**_DC-Marvel Unlimited. _A shared universe in which the characters of both DC and Marvel have always coexisted. Featuring new adventures and a few old ones, re-imagined...

**Episode 5**

"_**The Enemy Within"**_

**Part 2**

Somewhere outside of Metropolis.

Clark awoke to find himself staring at corn. He slowly sat up and glanced at his surroundings. He was sitting in a small crater in the middle of a cornfield. He was in pain. His whole body hurt. He hadn't known pain like this in quiet some time.

He was trying to piece together the events that had led him to this moment.

He had been fighting someone. Some...some guy in a red suit who wouldn't shut up. Then he fought someone else. Someone more powerful.

He...he fought...Superman? How could that be? How could Clark have fought himself?

He struggled to his feet. He couldn't think straight. He stared at the white clouds passing beneath a high royal blue sky.

He couldn't remember anything. He wasn't even sure who he really was. He knew that he needed help. He felt an odd urge. Something in his subconscious told him that he needed to head North. He didn't know why, but he knew that's what he had to do.

He stared once more up at the clouds, then soared off into the sky.

XXXXXX

Meanwhile, Superman stood on top of the Daily Planet building, beneath its trademark, massive spinning globe.

He stared down at Metropolis. This was his kingdom now. He was done playing the hero. He no longer cared about protecting the innocent. He no longer cared about truth, Justice and the American Way. He was too powerful to concern himself with such trivial things. And he would shed himself of that silly moniker given him by the people of this planet. He was not Superman. He was Kal-El, the last son of a once proud civilization, and Kal-El had scores to settle.

XXXXXX

"Where in God's name is Kent?" Perry White barked as he jerked open the door of his office. "He's been gone for hours now!"

"He went to pick up lunch and he never came back, Chief," said Jimmy Olson nervously as he paced outside the office. "Maybe we should go look for him?"

"Oh, you know how Clark is," sighed Lois Lane, scrolling through her iPhone, hunched over her desk. "He goes out for something trivial and ends up breaking a huge story and scooping the rest of us. He's fine. I'm sure of it."

XXXXXX

"Phyllis, have you sent the floral arrangement to Norman Osborn's mausoleum yet?" Lex Luthor asked of the small intercom box on his desk.

"_Already sent, Mr. Luthor._" replied the voice of his secretary.

"Excellent."

He eased back in his leather chair and lit a cigar. Deadpool had reported back the details of his confrontation with Superman. He recounted the fight, blow for blow, including the part where his eye fell out (complete with sound effects) and how Superman had threatened to kill him and how Supes began to act almost ill before flying off out of sight.

Luthor exhaled a cloud of smoke and waited for what he knew would be the inevitable reports of the Man of Steel having gone rogue. It was only a matter of time and when that did happen, he would sit back from a comfortable distance and watch the mayhem play out. He would enjoy watching whichever super-powered team or government agency would reluctantly, yet valiantly, take it upon themselves to bring down his old foe.

The large picture window to the left exploded, forcing Luthor to dive from his chair. As he struggled to his feet, he saw his archenemy standing before him, arms folded and glaring menacingly.

"What...what is the meaning of..." Luthor stammered.

"Zip it." Kal-El sneered.

"You...you can't just..."

"I said shut up! I'm here to do something that I should have done a long time ago, Luthor."

Luthor sighed and brushed the pebbled glass from his jacket sleeve.

"What's that? Arrest me, Superman? For what?"

"That's not my name anymore and I could care less about arresting you."

Kal-El shook his head and grimaced.

"Something wrong, Super...whatever your name is now?" Luthor flashed a sly, sideways smirk. "You look piked. Feeling ill, are we?"

Kal-El heaved a sigh and glared at him.

"I'm fine. More than fine. Because I'm going to kill you."

Luthor lit another cigar and puffed it for a few seconds.

"Are you?" he chuckled.

Just then the door to his right slammed open and Mercy Graves, Luthor's personal bodyguard appeared. The six foot tall blond woman, wearing a black chauffeur's uniform and miniskirt glanced at her boss before focusing her attention on the enemy that stood before her.

"Are you okay, Mr. Luthor?" she asked, tossing aside her black cap.

"I'm excellent, Mercy, dear." Luthor puffed his cigar. "Please remove this unwanted guest."

Mercy popped her knuckles and smirked.

"With pleasure, Sir."

"You think your Amazon can stop me?" Kal-El smirked.

"Bet your ass, Blue Boy." Mercy charged at him and leapt high in the air, preparing to kick the Man of Steel.

Instead, he swatted her with his left hand and sent her crashing through three walls.

Luthor was taken aback. He had never seen Superman use such force before. He knew that the boy scout always restrained himself. Even against his worst enemies, he would never unleash the full force of his brute strength.

He simply wasn't holding back. For the first time in a very long time, Lex Luthor felt fear; real, palpable fear.

Kal-El could sense this and he smiled wickedly.

"I'm going to kill you, Luthor. Something I should have done a long time ago."

He turned and used his heat vision to ignite the wall to his left. He trailed the two red hot beams from his eyes along the wall, leaving a rapidly growing line of flames. Soon, the entire room had caught fire.

"What...you...you can't...Superman doesn't kill!" Luthor screamed. "You don't kill your enemies!"

Kal-El raced across the room and snatched Luthor by the throat.

"I told you," he said, slowly tightening his grip. "I'm...not...Superman!"

Luthor saw the madness dancing in the eyes of his old enemy and he knew that he was going to die.

Kal-El grinned broadly, then hurled Luthor through the shattered window.

Luthor screamed as he plummeted 80 stories towards the pavement below.

He heard what sounded like a rocket and suddenly, his descent was halted. Luthor found himself staring into the gold and crimson face piece of Tony Stark's Iron Man armor.

"Stark?!" he gasped.

"What's the good word, Kojak?" Iron Man's metallic voice replied as they descended. "Judging from the smoke billowing out of your fancy building up there, I'm guessing this wasn't a suicide attempt?"

"It...it was Superman! He's gone insane! He tried to kill me!"

"Can't say as I blame him," Iron man replied as they landed and he carefully deposited Luthor on the sidewalk off the busy boulevard.

"Spare the editorializing, Stark!" Luthor snapped, visibly shaken as he attempted to smooth the wrinkles from his silk suit. "Superman's gone crazy and you have to do something!"

"Crazy is relative, but I'll go chat him up anyway."

Iron Man blasted skyward. Kal-El flew out of the hole in LexCorp Tower and collided with him in mid air. Kal-El wrapped his arms around him and seconds later, he drove Iron Man straight down into the middle of the street, imbedding him in the pavement and shattering the windows of nearly every building on the block.

Cars screeched to a stop in every direction. Onlookers screamed and ran for cover. Being citizens of Metropolis, this wasn't the first time that they'd seen the Man of Steel fight someone in the street and they knew what was coming next.

Kal-El flew thirty feet above the intersection and hovered there.

The lights of Iron Man's helmet flickered before once again burning bright.

"A_re you alright, Sir?_" inquired the clipped British accent of JARVIS, the voice of Tony Stark's on board computer.

"I've been better." Stark replied, attempting to gain his bearings as he lay in the street.

"_Sir, life support systems indicate that you have suffered two broken ribs and may have a mild concussion._"

"Sounds about right."

A black helicopter descended onto the scene and landed in the street, kicking up a cloud of dust and litter.

A tall African-American man sporting an eye patch over his left eye and wearing a black leather trench coat climbed down, followed by Agent Phil Coulson of SHIELD.

"Superman!" called Colonel Nick Fury. "Heard you might be actin' a little off your game. We had a report that you were mixin' it up on Main Street with a meta-human and then you just turned tail and ran. Not like you at all."

"What do you want, Fury?" Kal-El growled.

"Thought we might check up on you. You attempting to kill Mr. Luthor would confirm that you're not exactly yourself. Repugnant as he may be, you have no right to kill an innocent man."

"He is far from innocent."

"Be that as it may, Superman," Fury continued. "by order of SHIELD, you are under arrest. Surrender yourself peacefully."

Kal-El chuckled.

"It's going to take more than you and your lapdog Coulson to make that happen."

"Alright," Fury stared heavenward. "Have it your way."

"Lapdog?" Coulson sighed.

The skies overhead grew dark. The clouds began to swirl into a rapidly spinning ring. There was a deafening clap of thunder and a brilliant bolt of lightning struck the ground, tossing cars into the air and shattering what was left of the windows on the street.

The lightning bolt left a smoking hole in the ground. Suddenly, the clouds parted and the sun returned. As the smoke cleared, the figure of a massive man wearing ancient armor and a long red cape began to take shape.

Inside the crater knelt Thor, the Norse God of Thunder, who, like Iron Man, was a member of the superhero team known as The Avengers.

"Superman, old friend," Thor called. "surrender yourself. I know not what sorcerer's black magic has befallen you, but allow us to help!"

"Superman is dead. My name is Kal-El, Last Son of Krypton," Kal-El called. "and I don't need your help. I am a god! And this is my kingdom. I rule here now, and I'm not going anywhere, Golden Boy. Leave now, and I'll spare you your life."

"Nay, Kryptonian," Thor replied bemusedly. "Though you are indeed powerful, you are no god, as I. Claiming the title does not make it so."

After a quick diagnostic check of his armor and waiting for the buzzing in his head to stop, Iron Man stood unsteadily beside Fury.

"This is gonna get messy." he said, staring up at Kal-El. "Like _New York_ messy."

Fury nodded in agreement as he gazed upward.

"Coulson, any word on the Justice League?"

"Negative, Sir," Coulson replied, focusing his attention on the figure in red and blue, floating above the street. "The majority of the team is still off world training with the Green Lantern Corps.. They're still outside the communications window for a bit longer."

"This is worse than we thought," said Fury. "We're gonna need some reinforcements. Who's the closest good guy?"

"Booster Gold." Coulson replied.

Fury grimaced.

"Maybe there's a Girl Scout troop nearby." Iron Man offered.

Thor held his enchanted hammer, Mjolnir, at his side.

"I do not wish to fight you, Superman. I offer you one last chance to surrender yourself peacefully. I truly mean you no harm."

"You want me gone?" shouted Kal-El. "Come up here and make me!"

A solemn look passed over Thor's face as he began to swing his hammer in a circle.

"Very well, then," he shouted. "Have at thee!"

"Are we sure _he's_ the guy we want negotiating for us?" asked Iron Man.

Thor launched himself into the air as Kal-El raced towards him. They collided in mid-air. The impact sent a shock wave in every direction and sent both men hurtling back to Earth.

Kal-El hit the street and tumbled head over heels until he came to a rest by slamming into a bus, nearly overturning it.

Thor landed on his back, a block away.

"This is bad. Too many bystanders," Stark said inside his helmet as he studied the heads up display. "JARVIS, I need the location of the least populated piece of empty land."

A 3D map of Metropolis appeared before Stark's eyes, rotating 90 degrees before being dissected and finally zooming in on a patch of land.

JARVIS said, "_Aside from three public parks, there are two square miles of city blocks in the Suicide Slum neighborhood that have been abandoned and slated for demolition as part of a LexCorp urban renewal contract, Sir. Approximately 3.4 miles due east of this location._"

"Thor!" Iron Man called. "We have to get him away from all of these people! Follow me!"

Thor leapt into the air, his hammer held high.

"Lead the way, friend!"

Iron Man picked up a disoriented Kal-El, fired his booster rockets and soared off over the rooftops.

"Contact Hill, and tell her to scramble as many agents as she can," said Fury as he stalked back towards the helicopter. "and have her notify General Abernathy to place that new special missions force of his on stand by."

"Roger that," Coulson sighed as they climbed aboard the waiting copter.

"Something troubling you, Agent Coulson?"

"It just doesn't seem right, Sir," Coulson shouted above the noise from the chopper's rotors. "After all that Superman's done for our country and for this planet. To have to take him down like this..."

"It's like stepping on Mom and apple pie?"

"Something like that, Sir."

"I don't like it any more than you do, Phil, but SHIELD is all about stopping global threats and if a rogue Superman isn't a global threat, I don't know what is."

XXXXXX

Clark soared above the clouds, still disoriented. The events of that day had been a fog. In fact, it seemed that his whole life now was lost in some sort of mist. He only had snippets of memories. He couldn't even remember his own name. He was in excruciating pain and he was growing weaker by the moment. All he knew was this primal urge directing him to continue North. He felt that if he could just reach this unknown destination, he would be safe. He would be made whole again.

Clark descended through the clouds to see endless miles of snow and ice below. He felt himself drawn to a towering formation of jagged rock that seemed to have erupted from the ice long ago.

He suddenly felt very weak. He tumbled to Earth and landed with a jarring impact that sent cracks across the permafrost.

The last thing that Clark saw was falling snow, before he once again blacked out.

**End of Part 2**

All characters featured in this piece of fiction are the copyrighted property of their respective owners, creators and studios.

**A/N:** Okay, so in case anybody was wondering which "versions" I may be using of these different characters, I have to say that it's pretty much a melting pot. For the Marvel side of things, I've decided to draw heavily from the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) and the old school (think 1960's-1990's) Earth 616 Universe, with a pinch or two of the Ultimate Universe.

As for the DC half, I've drawn my inspiration largely from the pre-New 52 Earth 1 universe and from the DCAU (DC Animated Universe). Oh, and my Superman is Christopher Reeve. I mean, he just _has_ to be.

As much as I love comic books and their characters, I'm not as well versed in the mythology and back story of each character as other writers are, but I have honestly tried my best be as true to them as I can. I hope people are enjoying these and that I haven't enraged too many fanboys and girls (I use the term affectionately).


End file.
